A picture that is viral on the internet right now shows a white cougar spotted in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.
Yes, a white cougar and according to numerous reports, it is the first of its kind!
4 camera trap pictures that were taken in the year 2013 went viral on the internet recently and for people that do not know, the images have been confirmed as the first-ever confirmed case of a wild cougar that has leucism.
The images that we are talking about were taken in the Serra dos Órgãos National Park located in southeastern Brazil’s Atlantic.
The images were captured using a camera trap.
A couple of years later, an article that was published in the “Cat News Journal”, confirmed the sighting and also added that the spotting is the first-ever confirmed case of a wild cougar with leucism.
Luke Hunter, the executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Big Cats Program, said that the animal is unusual and you never get to see such animals.
Hunter added:
My best guess is that the distant ancestor of pumas was uniformly colored, and that has been maintained in the species ever since. But that’s just a consequence of the randomness of mutation, the roll of the genetic dice.
But there is a sad part of this news.
After the first-ever pictures taken of the very rare animal, the cougar was not seen ever again.
Cecília Cronemberger de Faria, an environmental analyst for the national park where the cat was spotted by the experts, said that the camera trap monitored the animal, but they did not get to spot the animal ever again.
Faria added:
The camera trap monitoring project restarted last year, but we still have no new record of this animal or any other odd-colored pumas.
No one knows where the animal is right now and no one knows if they are dead or alive.
What are your thoughts on the rare animal? Let us know what you think about the animal by leaving a comment in the comments section below!